Wading into the debate about gender specific toys, Click-A-Brick co-founders Georg de Gorostiza and Jason Smith say they believe parents should listen to what their kids want in terms of the toys they buy. Further to that, the pair say they want parents to view the company’s latest offering, the recently released Click-A-Brick Army Defenders 100pc Educational Toys Building Blocks Set for Boys and Girls, as a toy that is just as viable for girls as it is for boys.
The debate about whether or not companies should design and market toys specifically for girls has been going on for years and continues now, possibly more than ever. What toys children choose to play with and if those toys are specifically marketed toward girls or boys is said to affect everything from their self-image to what careers they might choose later in life.
But, de Gorostiza, who also acts as Click-A-Brick’s brand manager, says kids should be the indicator of what type of toys to buy for them.
“Full disclosure here; we do plan to release a set in the future that has more pastel colors and would traditionally be aimed more at girls,” de Gorostiza said. “But, I’ll be the first to say that parents should listen to their kids about what toys they want and not worry about buying them gender-specific toys. Both boys and girls love creating and boys may like the pastel colors of our set coming out in the future and girls might love building military vehicles and robots with the Army Defenders set. The point is, we put the words ‘for boys and girls’ on all our sets because we believe that even if they traditionally look like they’re for one gender or the other, we don’t think parents should automatically see it that way.”
A recent survey done by the company to gauge customer opinions on what themes to release next for its children’s educational toys also included questions about gender specific sets versus unisex sets. While it wasn’t an overwhelming majority, most survey respondents did say they preferred unisex sets rather than gender specific sets.
Comments left by respondents on the survey revealed thought unisex sets gave them more options when shopping for children because they could buy unisex sets for either a boy or a girl. Respondents said they also didn’t necessarily believe that a set aimed at girls had to include the color pink and a set aimed at boys didn’t have to include the color blue.
